Time of the Druids: A Time Travel Romance (Hadrian's Wall Book 3)

by Jane Stain

  The fake welcome was back in the laird’s face, and he openly examined Tal’s woad decorations as he spoke again.

  "Ye hae given us much tae consider. Much tae discuss when next we all meet. I fear that will na be for several days, sae in the meantime, please be oor guest. Angus will show ye tae a room where ye can… refresh yerself."

  Talorac now wished he had not let Deirdre put the Gaelic leine shirt on him. He would plainly never fit in with these people, and his small attempt to do so had only made them more suspicious of him.

  But Deirdre didn't have several days.

  "Nay," said Talorac. “A day and a half is as long as I can partake o yer hospitality afore Deirdre and I," he put emphasis on Deirdre's name, "take oor leave o ye and make the trip back tae the people. It is my hope that ye will find a way tae meet with the other lairds within that day and a half. Howsoever, if ye canna, then it is the hope o my people that ye will consider oor proposed alliance and send an emissary ower tae the people with yer decision. We greatly desire for ye tae join with us in alliance against the southern barbarians. Howsoever, I did na come here expecting tae hae an answer right away. Nay, I hae only been charged with the task o presenting this offer tae ye and returning with my impression o whether ye will entertain it or na. Please consider oor offer during this day and a half. I believe that is a fair amount o time."

  Growing ever more anxious about Deirdre, Talorac realized he had to make a stand for her before they had a chance to separate her from him even further.

  ‘Perhaps you throw away that day and a half if you speak up now,’ said his fear. ‘Perhaps things will come to a head here and now.’

  ‘If so, then so be it,’ Tal resolved inside, surprised at his own vehemence.

  "As I said, Deirdre is my traveling companion and ally. Please show me tae her. I understand if ye wish for the two o us tae bide with yer druids," Tal had to make a strong effort to keep the anger and disgust out of his voice here, "but it will be preferable if she and I could hae private quarters."

  As soon as he said this, Tal realized what it sounded like and almost took it back.

  But never mind. If they think she and I are lovers, maybe they’ll be more sympathetic.

  Having made this decision, Talorac stood and looked at the laird expectantly. He put no resignation in his face but rather determination to see what he had requested come to pass. He was rather pleased with himself at having delivered an ultimatum in such a polite way. Yes, his time shadowing Breth was paying off tenfold.

  But it turned out this man was not a laird for nothing. He had far more experience in diplomatic negotiations than Tal had gathered in seven months.

  Chapter 13

  The eyes of all the power-drained druids in the cell widened at the sight of Galdus at her hip when Deirdre entered. Poor things had been trapped here away from nature so long they probably couldn’t even light a fire.

  “Aye,” Galdus confirmed in her mind.

  Discreetly, when the guards weren't looking, she put her finger to her lips and gave them a stern look, amused to see how long they took getting themselves under control. Even though the situation was nearly dire, she didn't blame them.

  Galdus was singing a different tune, though. He was more worked up than she’d ever seen him.

  “Ye canna mean these guards honestly believe they could keep druids under their thumbs. Ha! Ye might trick a few intae being trapped in yer man-made prison away from Ma Nature who sustains us. But she lets us talk tae each other in oor dreams. And travel tae each other's rescue across yer limitations o time and distance.”

  Deidre engaged in some headstrong exultation at how much power she carried with her on her hip. Distance? Could druids travel distance by magic, not just through time? But then she came back down to earth.

  According to the stories Sasha had told her, people would imprison many druids in the future. She consoled herself with the knowledge that many did not mean most and that she had the power to see that those in this room anyway were not among the serpents driven out of Gaelic lands.

  Meanwhile, the oblivious guards felt they could gloat.

  "’Tis convenient that ye asked tae be shown tae the cell were the druids are kept, lass. I trust ye will find it comfortable here during yer bide."

  The winks and nods he gave to his fellow guards upon saying this were so obvious. They didn’t know that Galdus could store energy away from the trees, unlike those of them still stuck in bodies of flesh and blood. Deirdre had to resist the urge to laugh out loud. Shaking her head to avoid this, she touched the knee or arm of all seven other druids in the cell before she sat down, enabling Galdus to help her to converse with them silently, mind to mind. Amid their cacophony of conversation, she caught a warning and heeded it.

  “Hide that blade from them, lass!”

  That was easy. All she had to do was ask Galdus to hide himself.

  "That is already done, my dear," said Galdus in a reproving tone, "and a good thing tae. Had I waited for yer command tae hide, the guards would certainly have tried tae take me away. Yer new friend Talorac would na get the chance tae propose his military alliance."

  "Thank ye, Galdus. Ye are my one true friend. Say ye wull bide with me forever."

  "Ye rescued me from a life o solitude, and I am grateful. After ye pass intae the next waurld howsoever, I wull go tae whom I choose. It is important tae yer happiness that ye dinna try tae change this."

  “Are ye saying my last days are upon me?” Deirdre asked, trying to change the subject.

  “Nay, lass. Dinna fash,” said Galdus, allowing her to.

  Deirdre’s mind was whirling. He'd never told her this before. The implications made a mess of her mind for a moment before she got ahold of herself and applied all of her wits to the situation at hand, which was after all the whole reason Alasdair had sent her to this time. Talorac's cause was a good one, though, and she felt glad at being able to help him by the wayside along the road she was on.

  The insufferable guards were making themselves as annoying as possible, probably hoping to provoke resistance so that they could beat the poor druids down. It made Deirdre angry, but she didn't take the bait.

  "How does it feel, being sae self-important and having yer sad little sack o bones locked up in a cell like a common criminal?"

  “Ye all made my childhood a drudgery with all those names and places tae memorize. I never expected tae be able tae return the favor, though I would wager ye wish ye were learning."

  Cringing on cue against the cold stone benches so that the guards remained oblivious to the interaction inside their minds, the druid leader introduced them all.

  “Thank ye sae much for coming! I’m Kael and this is Aart. Maaike and Bahar and Nelda hae been here the shortest time, Neil and Landry the longest, five months. Ye hae come tae rescue us, aye?”

  Galdus spoke for the two of them, him being the actual druid.

  “Aye, howsoever, ye are a strong bunch, in numbers at the verra least. How did ye come tae be trapped here?”

  It was highly inappropriate in this circumstance, but again Deirdre had to resist the urge to laugh while the druids told their tale of woe about how their laird had converted to a new religion and now persecuted them.

  The thing was, it sounded almost exactly like one of Sasha’s bedtime stories, about a druid who was the Merlin. These druids’ story brought to mind something the Merlin said to his apprentice Morgana about how one god had come to drive out the many gods and it being a time for the ways of men.

  Even in her more innocent youth, Deirdre had been convinced the Merlin was a druid, though Sasha never mentioned that he was. The solidifying fact had been the namesake of Sasha’s tale: a sword that could keep itself buried in a stone until the person it desired to be joined with tugged on its pommel.

  Chapter 14

  They passed the better part of the day this way, the trapped druids silently telling Galdus and Deirdre their stories right in front of the guards
who stayed to mock them — and to keep an eye on Deirdre, whom they knew would still have powers, having only recently left the natural world to step down into this hard man-made stone one.

  On into the night the guards stayed. And halfway into the next day. And then finally, at long last, the guards were called away.

  The man who conveyed their summons came very close to the door of the room.

  Maaike was closest to him, so she stood up and made a pretense of appealing to this guard for their release while really all he was doing was touching the man's finger so that she could hear the man's surface thoughts. Which she relayed to the rest of them, of course.

  “That druidess Deirdre’s traveling companion was foolish tae specify a day and half till he would leave. He seems rather fond o her, sae this is assuredly the time when her powers run out."

  The guard remembered a scene in a large reception hall within this underground castle, festooned with tapestries and animal skins and furnished with six large chairs where the lairds held court for all the people in this settlement and in a much smaller version of Port Patrick. The messenger remembered Talorac in this Hall, smiling, surrounded by people he hoped to make allies. The man didn't know whether this alliance would come into being. He was ambivalent on it, himself, thinking on the one hand the Gaels should let the Picts wear themselves out taking the brunt of the Roman attacks, while on the other hand getting involved now might indeed put an end to the Roman threat.…

  "Soon, Talorac will break his peace with these people and come tae yer rescue," said Bahar.

  "Aye," said Kael. "Now is the time tae make yer move, as soon as these men move past where they sense us and before they reach the room where Talorac happily anticipates his alliance."

  Impatient to be getting on with it and swelled with pride that they were addressing her, Deirdre moved toward the door.

  But Galdus stopped her, as she half expected him to.

  "They have the right o it. Wait till the guards move out of their puny hearing range. Wait, lass."

  So Deirdre waited. And waited. And waited, all while her heart beat erratically in fear of them seizing Talorac and…

  "We will not let it come tae that," Galdus and half the other druids said in her mind at the same time.

  "Verra well," said Galdus at long last. "Let me talk with the door."

  Deirdre took Galdus off her belt and out of his scabbard, exposing the cold jagged metal of the dagger with its animal curlicue grooves in patterns similar to the woad decorations that still covered her body. Gingerly lest lightning fly out — which had happened before — she reached out and placed him against the solid oak door of their small stone underground cell that made the eight of them — nine if you included Galdus — crowd against each other. Which was nice in a way, because it was cold in here.

  "Pretty oak," Galdus cooed to the door, “the iron lock and hinges that hold ye tae this stone, they cause ye great pain. I can feel it. I will release ye from them, but ye must help me. Slough off some o yer moisture, just a bit, and I wull make them rust away from ye. Och, given enough time they will rust away on their own, aye. Howsoever, this will take sae much time. Centuries must pass before ye gain yer freedom from them in the natural course o things. I can ease yer pain this day..."

  His comments reminded Deirdre of Talorac’s brooch keys.

  "He has withheld the best versions from ye.”

  Galdus had waited until now to tell her, severely irritating her.

  "Dinna Fash,” he said to only her. “I could na tell ye sooner o his deception, lest ye become overly annoyed with him and leave him behind. I desire for his alliance with the Gaels tae succeed, and so I kept it from ye long enough tae arrive here. Now I perceive ye hae formed yer own connection with the young lad, aye?"

  "Nay!" Deirdre yelled at Galdus in her mind, but as soon as she did so, she knew it was a lie, and this infuriated her all the more.

  Galdus chuckled even as he continued to appeal to the door to release its moisture.

  "So ye dinna care about getting into that secret room?" Deirdre asked Galdus out loud in a huff.

  Galdus chastised her for this lapse in judgment immediately. "Hush, lass."

  All nine of them listened for any sign that the guards had heard and would be coming back. Deirdre thought she heard them pause for a moment, and her heart raced. But then some distant chuckles made their way down the long stone halls, and the guards moved away again joking among themselves.

  "Let them dream o getting intae a secret room doon here, for all the good it will do them."

  "Aye, I almost feel sorry for them."

  "I dae as well, almost."

  This was followed by more laughter as the guards continued to move away, until even Galdus’s heightened hearing could no longer get the sound, and Deirdre knew the guards were away and would bother her no more.

  Through Galdus, she felt the door come off its hinges and lock, and she stepped forward while Galdus held the door so all could exit, then back so Galdus could set the door down inside the cell.

  “Aye, they likely wull burn ye now, but that will quickly be over, unlike the pain o the hard cold metal…”

  With the sigh of wood resting against stone, the door resigned itself to its fate. It had been promised release from pain, and it would get early decay. For this betrayal by omission of detail, Deirdre felt a tinge of guilt on behalf of Galdus, who never felt any. But done was done.

  "O course I want tae get intae the room with the puzzle stone door," Galdus whispered into all their minds even as he had Deirdre hold him to the freed door so he could hide it. "But I can make the copies Talorac gave ye work, lass. Never fear when I am near."

  She saw for the first time how much of a hold her best friend had over her, letting him keep secrets without her resenting it.

  But his presence was comforting.

  Chapter 15

  And just like that, they were free to roam the stone corridors as they saw fit.

  "Begging yer pardon," said the youngest druid, Landry, to Galdus, "but can ye help us get out o here and then come back and find yer precious secret room? Ye canna hae much power left after that talk with the door."

  Deirdre winced as Galdus envisioned the young druid choking to death for his impertinence. Always before, Alasdair had been along, and that ancient druid had taken the lead. She hadn't realized just how necessary that had been. How bloodthirsty Galdus was.

  Fortunately, Kael spoke to the youngest among them as they hurried the other way down the stone corridor.

  "Galdus here is special. Encased in metal, his powers do na drain when he is away from the trees. Can ye not sense them?"

  Landry was in front, where they could all keep an eye on him in the flickering light of the torches on the walls, and he turned and bowed to Galdus as, single file, they descended a narrow stone staircase.

  "I hae created a loop," Galdus said, as if that explained everything.

  "A loop!"

  "I thought those were a myth."

  Deirdre sagely nodded her head, though she'd never heard of a loop.

  "What are ye talking about?" She asked Galdus in what she hoped was a way not heard by the others.

  "My loop," he said in a way that let her know everyone could hear, "does give us all the time we need, stuffed in between the moment when the guards left oor door and the moment Talorac arrives tae rescue ye, Deirdre. The illusion I placed on oor cell door is a safeguard. If anything should happen tae me, my time loop will collapse. It requires constant concentration. Howsoever, my illusion will last a day or sae after I'm gone, provided I have na dismissed it already."

  They had reached an odd fork in the passageways, where a middle hallway was the obvious way to go, yet it had seen the least traffic as evidenced by wear and tear on the finely milled and well matched stones that made up its floor. And no torches were mounted in it.

  Deirdre stroked the opening to this hidden hallway in wonder. No one but those who carried d
ruid magic would be able to see it. What a useful trick.

  Galdus led them down this seldom used middle hallway to the dimly lit end and then urged her on to a part of the wall that looked like any other part of the wall.

  "There's nothing here," she said in private — she hoped.

  Galdus was amused again. She could tell by the laughter he hid in his voice as he spoke again for everyone.

  "I did na put much energy into the illusion I cast on yon cell door. Howsoever, the druid who cast the illusion over this door poured all o his dying energy into it. I know, because I was with him when he did it."

  At his urging, she placed him up against the wall.

  The pristinely milled hallway blurred in her vision, reminding her of the time she drank too much mead. And then three doors appeared. Ancient doors, the way they were fashioned from the stone. There was no wood involved at all, nor any iron. No, these doors were stone slides within stone frames. Aha, and there were the keyholes. She took out her three brooch keys and went to try the first one on the first door.

  "Touch it tae me first,” said her constant companion. “And the others. I see where Talorac purposely botched their forging. I can fix them."

  Giddy excitement and anticipation threatened to swallow Deirdre up, so consuming was her desire to see what had been hidden by someone's dying energy.

  "Gae on now, open the door," Galdus told her. “There is only one, the third, and it needs all three keys. Good. Nae everyone gae inside, quickly."

  They all rushed into the room, which was about the size of the cell they had left.

  "Close the door, Deirdre, quick nae."

  It was dark once she did, so dark she couldn't see her hand in front of her face.

  Reading her mind — as he always could, no matter how hard she had tried to hide thoughts from him at first — Galdus made himself radiate with light that bounced off the stone walls and reflected back on the door she had closed, showing the room to contain thousands of objects in various sizes and shapes and colors, all radiating magic.